Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, ECONOMIC NEWS—GAO finds millions of working Americans still depend on Medicaid and SNAP, including employees of major corporations, (Aug 25, 2026)

By WK Editorial Staff

Walmart emerged repeatedly throughout the analysis, including ranking as the largest employer of working Medicaid enrollees in Georgia, Indiana, and Oklahoma, and topping the list of employers of SNAP recipients in Arkansas.

A new Government Accountability Office report found that millions of Americans who work for wages continue to rely on federal safety net programs to afford basic necessities, with many employed by some of the nation’s largest companies. The study concludes that work alone remains insufficient for many low-income households to avoid needing public assistance for health care and food.

The report, prepared at the request of Sen. Bernie Sanders, examined the most recent national data on workers enrolled in Medicaid and households receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. It also analyzed employer data from 11 states to identify companies employing large numbers of Medicaid enrollees and SNAP recipients.

Millions of working adults. According to the GAO, an estimated 13.8 million adults who earned wages during 2024 were enrolled in Medicaid, while 10.6 million wage-earning adults lived in households receiving SNAP food assistance. The agency found that these workers shared several characteristics, including a high likelihood of working in the private sector, working full time at some point during the year, and being concentrated in a relatively small number of industries and occupations.

One of the report’s central findings challenges the notion that public assistance is primarily used by people outside the workforce. About two-thirds of working Medicaid enrollees and more than 70 percent of working SNAP recipients worked full-time schedules for at least part of 2024. Specifically, 66.1 percent of wage-earning Medicaid enrollees and 71.3 percent of wage-earning SNAP recipients worked at least 35 hours per week.

Private sector, specific industries. The report also found that most of these workers were employed by private-sector businesses. Nearly 88 percent of wage-earning adults enrolled in Medicaid worked in the private sector, compared with about 81 percent of workers not enrolled in the program. Similarly, 87.3 percent of SNAP recipients who worked were employed in the private sector.

Industry concentration was another major theme. More than 70 percent of working Medicaid enrollees and SNAP recipients were employed in five broad industry groups: education, health care and social services; arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services; wholesale and retail trade; professional and administrative services; and manufacturing. Workers receiving benefits were especially concentrated in accommodation and food services, where their representation was roughly double that of workers not participating in Medicaid or SNAP.

Occupational patterns mirrored those industry trends. Transportation and material moving jobs, food preparation and serving occupations, sales positions, office support jobs, and health care support roles accounted for more than half of working Medicaid enrollees and SNAP recipients. Food service and health care support jobs showed particularly high concentrations of program participants compared with workers not receiving assistance.

Large employers included. The GAO also found that reliance on safety net programs is not limited to workers employed by small businesses. More than one-third of wage-earning Medicaid enrollees worked for employers with at least 1,000 employees, while more than 41 percent of working SNAP recipients were employed by companies of that size.

To better understand employer patterns, the agency collected detailed state-level employment data from 15 agencies across 11 states. While the findings are not representative of the nation as a whole, they provide a snapshot of where many Medicaid enrollees and SNAP recipients work. Across those states, 46 companies appeared among the top 25 employers of Medicaid enrollees or SNAP recipients in at least two states. Seventeen of those companies ranked among the 50 largest Fortune 500 employers by workforce size.

Walmart and Amazon. Walmart emerged repeatedly throughout the analysis. The retail giant ranked as the largest employer of working Medicaid enrollees in Georgia, Indiana, and Oklahoma and was among the leading employers in Rhode Island and Maine. Walmart also topped the list of employers of SNAP recipients in Arkansas and ranked near the top in Georgia.

Amazon also appeared frequently, ranking among the largest employers of Medicaid enrollees in Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island. The company likewise appeared near the top of employer lists for SNAP recipients in Georgia and Arkansas.

Other companies frequently identified included Dollar General, Dollar Tree, McDonald’s, Kroger, FedEx, Target, CVS, Home Depot, and Walgreens. The report also highlighted food-service chains such as Waffle House, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell, along with staffing firms and health care organizations.

State variation. State data showed significant variation in the share of Medicaid and SNAP beneficiaries who were working adults. Among six states that provided Medicaid employment data, nondisabled, nonelderly working adults accounted for between 15 percent and 34 percent of all adult Medicaid enrollees. Rhode Island reported the highest share among adult enrollees at 34 percent, while Georgia reported the lowest at 15 percent.

For SNAP, working adults represented between 13 percent and 35 percent of adult recipients in the nine states that supplied data. Tennessee reported the highest share, with working adults making up 35 percent of adult SNAP beneficiaries, while Georgia reported the lowest at 13 percent. North Carolina and Nebraska each reported that working adults accounted for roughly 32 percent of adult SNAP recipients.

Data limitations. The report notes several limitations. Employer data was obtained from only those states able to provide reliable employment information matching agency requirements. The analysis also relied partly on self-reported Census survey data, which historically underestimates participation in public assistance programs. In addition, larger employers may be more likely to appear on top-employer lists because of their workforce size.

Consistent picture. Even with those limitations, the GAO’s findings paint a consistent picture: millions of Americans who are participating in the labor force, including many working full time and many employed by nationally recognized corporations, continue to rely on Medicaid and SNAP to help cover basic living expenses. The agency said its updated analysis generally confirms patterns identified in earlier reports, suggesting that dependence on federal assistance among low-wage workers remains a persistent feature of the U.S. economy.

Companies: Walmart; Amazon; Dollar General; Dollar Tree; McDonald’s; Kroger; FedEx; Target; CVS; Home Depot; Walgreens; Waffle House; Burger King; Wendy’s; Taco Bell

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